Saffery Trust sponsors champion fencer on journey to Olympics

Saffery Trust is supporting an Olympic hopeful fencer in Guernsey, who has been selected for the British Fencing Athlete Development Programme.

16-year-old Oakley Francart, who has been fencing since he was 9, was selected for Team GB last year and has represented them at competitions throughout Europe. In 2023 he was ranked 13^th in the under-17 cadets for Great Britain and has been nominated for a Pride of Guernsey Young Achiever of the Year award this year.

Saffery Trust Managing Director, Nick Batiste, said he was impressed by Oakley’s dedication to his goals and to helping others.

“Alongside Oakley’s success in the sport, we were particularly impressed that he volunteers his time to coach younger fencers at the Sarnia Sword Club. We are committed to supporting opportunity and enabling success for the next generation of our staff, and of the wider community, and were delighted to see that Oakley shares the same values.”

“We select a number of local causes to support throughout the year and try to support members of our community in various ways, so we are pleased to be able to play a role in supporting Oakley in his Olympic dreams and wish him all the best for the journey ahead.”

Oakley said the support from Saffery Trust would help with travel expenses to off-island competitions and training camps.

“Being selected for the BF Athlete Development Programme was very exciting and I’m looking forward to training alongside some of the top fencers in Great Britain. It’s important that I can attend events off-island so I can keep getting better, and I am extremely grateful for the sponsorship and support from Saffery Trust which will help me to do this.”

“I hope that younger athletes will see that it is possible to follow big dreams even coming from a tiny island and I am excited to continue working towards future Olympics.”